Hotel tax rate bill headed to the governor

Saturday

May 31, 2008 at 12:01 AMMay 31, 2008 at 10:35 AM

Legislation authorizing East Peoria and Morton to raise their local hotel tax rates by a single percentage point, to 6 percent, passed Friday in the Illinois House of Representatives and will head to the governor.

Adriana Colindres

Legislation authorizing East Peoria and Morton to raise their local hotel tax rates by a single percentage point, to 6 percent, passed Friday in the Illinois House of Representatives and will head to the governor.

The House voted 64-48 for Senate Bill 2676, which already won Senate approval and would become law if Gov. Rod Blagojevich signs it. After officially receiving the bill, he will have 60 days to decide what to do.

The governor’s press office did not respond to an inquiry Friday about whether he would sign the proposal.

The bill, sponsored in the House by Rep. Mike Smith, D-Canton, is part of an overall effort spearheaded by the Peoria Area Convention and Visitors Bureau.

Smith and two other Peoria-area lawmakers, Republican Reps. David Leitch of Peoria and Keith Sommer of Morton, said the legislation is important to central Illinois’ tourism promotion and economic development.

The idea is to ensure "that no (Peoria-area) community has an unfair advantage over another" in hotel tax rates, Smith said.

Brent Lonteen, president and chief executive officer of the bureau, said he has been working with local officials to ensure that Peoria, East Peoria, Pekin, Morton and Washington have uniform hotel tax rates.

Peoria’s rate already is at 6 percent, and raising the rates in the other communities would generate extra revenue to invest in tourism marketing, said Lonteen, who has estimated an additional $150,000 in hotel tax revenue.

East Peoria and Morton, both non-home-rule communities, need state government’s authorization to increase their hotel tax rates beyond 5 percent. The other three communities are home-rule entities and can do it on their own.

Lonteen emphasized that if the governor signs the legislation, the East Peoria City Council and the Morton Village Board still would need to vote to increase their hotel tax rates.

"This is not a tax bill. It’s a permissive bill," he said.

Adriana Colindres can be reached at (217) 782-6292 or adriana.colindres@sj-r.com.